CHICAGO — Trade Show Executive’s (TSE) first-quarter dashboard reflects a slight slowdown in growth following the explosive recovery from the pandemic, but rates remain robust. The dashboard lists trade show metrics for each quarter, detailing traditional indicators such as net square footage (NSF), exhibitor count, overall attendance and other highlights for each show.
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A total of 80 shows are represented in the first quarter dashboard. Net square footage increased at 63 of these events, while 30 saw double-digit growth. Exhibitor count also increased, with 56 shows seeing increases in this metric and 32 achieving double-digit improvements. Total attendance increased at 56 shows, with 30 seeing double-digit gains. Forty-three events saw gains in trade attendance, with 20 seeing double-digit growth.
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Combined growth across all shows in Q1 indicates a 7.0% upward mobility rate for NSF, a 4.3% increase in exhibitors, a 4.7% increase in total attendees, and a 2.4% increase in trade attendees. To put this in context, these growth numbers for Q4 2023 are 7.8% for NSF, 7.6% for exhibitors, 6.7% for attendance, and 5.3% for trade attendance. While NSF growth remains strong throughout early 2024, growth in both exhibitor and attendee metrics has begun to slow from the all-time highs of the post-COVID era. In total, the first quarter shows filled 13,793,779 NSFs, brought together 35,435 exhibitors and gathered 1,201,098 total attendees, of which 655,450 were trade attendees. The TSE achieved these values after adjusting for outliers and issues without a comparison over two consecutive years.
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Several events stood out in the first quarter, posting notable growth. Indoor Ag-Con led the way in exhibitor numbers with a 54.5% increase. World of Asphalt Show & Conference, hosted by the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, saw the largest increase in attendance, with 38.6% more people attending the 2024 event than the previous edition in 2022. RE+ Northeast expanded its exhibit space by 74.2%, making it the leader in this category. In terms of overall numbers, CES® It was the largest NSF show with 2,560,844 spectators and it also had the largest attendance, 138,789 attendees.
Check out the full dashboard in the June issue of TSE Magazine. Subscribe to receive TSE Magazine today at
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